WASHINGTON — Nearly three years after Congress outlawed six-figure contributions to national political parties, dozens of corporations and Republican financiers have given a quarter million dollars each to President Bush's inaugural fund.
At least 54 donors have written checks for $250,000, the maximum Bush imposed for donations to the inauguration Thursday, according to figures released Friday. Four years ago, Bush set the limit at $100,000.
The contributions are legal, and donors and Bush inaugural officials say they are meant to help celebrate an event that rises above electoral politics.
The 2002 McCain-Feingold law barred national parties from collecting the unregulated campaign funds known as soft money, but it set no caps on inaugural fundraising.
Critics say that means special interests are able to write big checks in an effort to expand their clout in a Republican-run capital.
Among the top donors for the $40-million inaugural bash are Ameriquest Capital Corp., of Orange, and Occidental Petroleum Corp., of Los Angeles, two examples of companies from the financial and energy sectors that stand to benefit from Bush administration policies through legislation and regulation.
Ameriquest, a financial-services company with at least two subsidiaries that also gave $250,000 checks to the inaugural fund, declined to comment on the donations.
An Occidental spokesman said the company, which specializes in oil and gas exploration and production, had a history of bipartisan giving to inaugurals dating to the swearing in of Jimmy Carter in 1977.
"It's democracy in action," said Larry Meriage, Occidental's vice president for communications and public affairs.
"We view this as not a partisan event."
Still, he acknowledged that the company probably would benefit from helping to underwrite the festivities.
"There's some recognition that you do get, to be seen in a positive light inside the Beltway," Meriage said. "We see it as a good thing to get some exposure at events like this."
Advocates of limits on political donations decry the large contributions to Bush's inauguration. They liken the inaugural festivities to the carnival of lobbying, donating and party-going that prevails at the major-party presidential nominating conventions.
"It sends absolutely the wrong message to the public," said Fred Wertheimer, a longtime Washington activist who helped lobby for the McCain-Feingold law.
